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Demi Riquísimo reveals the latest EP on his Semi Delicious imprint No Given Time featuring collaborations with Tesselate founders The Trip, stalwart of East London's Queer scene Michelle Manetti and Belfast favourite Hammer.

With the signature Semi Delicious sound demonstrated throughout the package, the warm and groove-driven productions are designed with the dancefloor firmly in mind. Opening with the solo title track ‘No Given Time’, Demi sets the tone with lush synth work and lashings of 90s house flavour. Collaboration with The Trip ‘Infinite Room’ follows, with elastic basslines and an unmistakable blend of the artists’ sonic aesthetics, while ‘Only Love’ sees Demi team up with Michelle Manetti for a slice of joyous uplift with dreamy soundscapes. Closing out the EP is ‘Lime House’, in collaboration with Belfast’s Hammer, as the pair bring in prog-style chords and dizzying synths that take you well into the afterhours.

“Collaboration is important because it opens you to new ideas and thought processes while learning new tricks and techniques,” Demi explains. “It’s also a lovely way to bond and build relationships with other producers.”

'In collaboration with the children of Nico Kasanda, better known as Docteur Nico, Planet Ilunga proudly presents an anthology dedicated to African Fiesta Sukisa, available as a 3LP set and a digital release with bonus songs. This release is the result of many years of preparations and was realized in close partnership with Liliane Kasanda, Nico’s eldest daughter. Marking forty years since his passing, we felt that the year 2025 was the right time to honor Docteur Nico’s legacy with this original collection.
'Almost all of the African Fiesta Sukisa songs were released on Nico’s Sukisa label which translates in Lingala for “the final accomplishment”. The music on Sukisa, crafted by Nico and legendary vocalists such as Chantal, Sangana, Apôtre, Mizele, Lessa Lassan and Josky, embodies the essence of that powerful phrase with genius, class and depth. The label ran between 1966 and 1975 and released approximately 280 songs. Ngoma also issued the group between 1967 and 1971 and, in addition, reissued material from the Sukisa label. Many of these songs have become part of the collective memory of Congolese society and are still heard, discussed, and analyzed daily across digital platforms worldwide, as well as on numerous Congolese radio and TV stations.
'The album we put together features some of Nico’s signature songs alongside never before reissued tracks from the Sukisa catalog. It furthermore contains a large booklet with song commentary, testimonial interviews from well-known musicians, journalists, fans and Nico’s entourage, besides never before published photography about his personal and musical life.
'Alastair Johnston, author of the book ‘A Discography of Docteur Nico’ and longstanding Planet Ilunga collaborator, designed a stylish booklet and cover using all our collected material. Audifax Bemba, longtime admirer, compiler and connoisseur of Nico’s music, and the author of most of the song commentary in our accompanying booklet, offers his portrait of Docteur Nico:
“After displaying technical virtuosity with African Jazz, expert and accomplished guitar with African Fiesta, which musicologist Sylvain Bemba described as a dream guitar, Nico Kasanda was consecrated ‘dieu de la guitare’ by the public in the late sixties. With his band African Fiesta Sukisa, Docteur Nico displays his wide palette of unusual sounds. While exploring the Hawaiian guitar with its clear, airy, plangent, psychedelic effluvia, he continues to replicate the piano comping technique, and adds two missing strings to his bow: a simulation of the sanza (likembé or thumb piano), whose sounds he reproduces right down to the noisemakers of the tiny tin rings, on the one hand, and the sounds of the Luba balafon on the other. The right note, in the right place, at the right time, is the triptych on which Nico Kasanda’s playing is based, a note dressed in the perfect sound. A guitar of pure emotion. With African Fiesta Sukisa, his playing takes a ‘Chopin-esque’ turn, sending out more notes in a sublime adagio. The true artist is the one who simplifies everything. Docteur Nico is a genius of our time, whose style makes him the supreme exponent of the most important guitar school in Congolese music. He is recognized by his peers as the greatest African solo guitarist of all time. Sculpting sound in a tireless quest for beauty, Nico Kasanda has sublimated the guitar throughout his career.”






























[xd] Kamulangu [Outro] (Dr. Kasanda – Sukisa 135) Folklore Baluba

Comprising of sisters Eva and Grace Tedeschi, The Cords are the brightest new indiepop band from Scotland and this is theri debut. They started playing drums when they were little kids and later found that they liked 80s and 90s indie music more than their peers did, and so formed a band, just the two of them, with Grace on drums and Eva on guitar - and the songs started to flow. With only a cassette and a flexi single released so far (both of which sold out in a matter of hours), Eva and Grace honed their skills by playing a whole series of gigs with some of the biggest names in Scottish pop. Their first show was with The Vaselines, and since then they have played with Camera Obscura, Belle and Sebastian, BMX Bandits and others, while also sharing stages with the new generation of indiepop stars: the Umbrellas, Chime School, Lightheaded. Like all great pop bands, The Cords have taken familiar ingredients and created something utterly fresh. Older indie fans will hear echoes of The Shop Assistants, The Primitives, Tiger Trap and Talulah Gosh, but they will hear something else too: a yearning, dreamy melodic power that takes the songs into darker, stranger places. Younger pop fans won't care about these old reference points: what they will hear is the sound of two young women doing something utterly exciting: playing loud guitar and loud drums, taking analogue instruments and hitting them hard in the service of immediate and infectious pop tunes, and not giving a second thought about the digital world that wants to own everything we do. The Cords sound free: they remind us that pop music, played right, is expressive, liberating, joyful and deeply personal. First single `Fabulist' is a sweet and catchy pop song that races along, so headlong and hooky that, on first listen, you could miss the fact that it's a wholehearted take-down of people who lie for a living. And the album is a fun rollercoaster ride from that point onwards, with the real stars of this record being Eva's sinuous guitar and silky vocals, and Grace's clattering, expressive sing-song drums. It's the sound of two sisters having an intense musical conversation with each other, pushing each other on to greater heights, exhilarated by the set of perfect pop songs they have magicked up. DIGIPAK CD, LP on BABY BLUE VINYL.

The complete recordings of the legendary Marc And The Mambas run of three live performances given at The Duke Of York's Theatre in London's West End in 1983. Restored from the original VHS tape recordings made by the late Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson (Throbbing Gristle, Coil), these remain the only recordings that exist of Marc And The Mambas performing live. Originally released in 2012 on Marc Almond's (Soft Cell) own Strike Force Entertainment label as a CD/DVD set (long sold out), this edition, presented on vinyl for the first time, contains the 17 tracks from the SFE CD release, expanded to include the two bonus DVD-only tracks: 'Près Des Ramparts De Séville' and 'Jacky'. Completely remastered for vinyl by Martin Bowes (The Cage Studios). A combination of the chanson and torch songs which he still sings today, over piano, strings and woodwind-accompanied compositions. "It's quite a spectacle, especially when Almond hits his sweet spot of sinister lyrics, declared pompously over a droned string arrangement... Early signs of the full-on showtune and classical rearrangements that make up Almond's current albums are evident"(Record Collector). Presented on heavyweight double vinyl in a deluxe glossy gatefold sleeve featuring the extensive reminiscence by Marc Almond himself from the 2012 release. Also included is a reproduction of the 16-page programme printed for the three concerts in 1983. The stunning cover painting by Val Denham is exclusive to this release.

US Black Friday 2025 Release. There are very few albums in the psych/punk/hard rock/private presses strata that garner the sort of universal awe and accolades that Fraction’s almighty Moonblood LP does, and even fewer records in the world that could be dubbed ‘Christian Rock’ incur such fierce devotion. Indeed some records just meteorically lift themselves out any genre tag with brilliance and sheer defiance--and Moonblood is surely one of them. Based in LA, Fraction was a ragged collection of working-class musicians--the line-up was ringleader Jim Beach--vocals; Don Swanson--lead guitar, Curt Swanson--drums, Victor Hemme--bass, and Robert Meinel--rhythm guitar. Beach himself describes those early days: “The guys met through various acquaintances that we had in LA. All of us had been in bands before, but were seeking something with more teeth. We had a small studio in an industrial complex in North Hollywood and started practicing sometimes as early as 4:30 AM. We all had day jobs, so we did what we could.”

Amazingly the recording sessions for the album were recorded similarly on the fly, as Beach further states: “The Moonblood recording took place at Whitney’s Studio in Glendale, CA, early in 1971. On a strict budget, these songs were recorded in less than three hours—all of them “one takes.” We played, all 5 of us, simultaneously-- there were no studio effects, no overdubbing or any additional sound effects added. Basically what you hear is considered ‘old school’ recording.”

This workmanlike description in no way prepares one for the pure tortured genius the session wrought. Particularly noteworthy is Beach’s vocals—as commonly stated, the spirit of Jim Morrison is conjured in his deep baritone, which gives way to unparalleled pained howls, at times bathed in delay which trails into the abyss. Fascinatingly enough, Beach cites the much punker Love as his fave LA band over the Doors, and also gives influence-nods to proto-everything rockers The Yardbirds and to Dylan, whose dark word tapestries surely inspired Beach’s lyrics (though lines from The Doors’ “L’America” pop up on the LP) Whatever the case, the man clearly has a vision, as even the stark sleeve concept is Beach’s own. Equally as integral to the Fraction sound is lead guitarist Don Swanson—his blown-out fuzz riffs set a template for what is now commonly known as “stoner rock” or “acid punk,” and his solos consist of jagged, wah-wah-ed shards of notes, with his amplifier clearly pushed to the limit.

Beach says: “Don’s guitar was always my driving force and he did everything he could to keep it over the top. You’d never know that (his sound) was coming from an old, broken down Esquire. Don kept it alive!” The other members contributions shouldn’t be underappreciated though-- drummer Curt Swanson keeps things at a constant simmer, and then boils over when the whole band launches into snarling glory. The band and LP as a whole equals something indescribably intense from start to finish—comparisons to the Detroit late 60s high-energy bands like The Stooges and MC5 abound, as well as the sort of late 60s damaged spirit lurking in biker clubs and disgruntled Vietnam vets. The song cycle on side 1 of the LP in particular cuts to the emotional core, with severely charged dark lyrics like “Extend your thumbs and burn the darkness out of her.” Which brings us to the Christian aspect--it often can confuse listeners. The Fraction/Beach world of religion is complex and perhaps a bit pagan/sinister than most---fire and brimstone, temptation, and the truth-seeker being burned by this hell on earth—or perhaps as Beach himself best put it: “Speaking for myself, as a believer, it’s been a progressive experience since my childhood.

I think we’re all basically driven to live more than religion.” The album was pressed in a run of but a few hundred to little attention in the day, but now inferior bootlegs flood the marketplace, and originals of Moonblood command thousands of dollars. So enjoy this all-inclusive reissue, which also features for the first time on vinyl, 3 lost tracks-- like the more acoustic-minded “prisms” and “dawning light,” as well as the proto-metal choogle of “Intercessor’s Blues.”

Wasteland EP - debut solo from Tomie - six cuts running from electro to techno - 808drive, rough edges and stripped to its core.

Berlin-based, half Italian and half Moroccan. Runs the /xex label and the project torcidas mentes. Produces electro, techno, and EBM. Plays both live and DJ sets. Upcoming releases on Sismo 005 and XEX 002.

For SEVEN's first anniversary, we've brought together a roster of talented artists, each with a distinct style, to reimagine CRYME's hit "London Boy" originally released on The Backroom EP in 2024. This 5-track remix EP features a remastered version of the original alongside fresh interpretations by none other than Ghettotech heavyweight MCR-T, Prog House queen Roza Terenzi, modular wizard JakoJako, and Amsterdam's legendary Stef de Haan as a digital bonus. The vinyl will be limited to 500 copies.
With full marketing and PR support around the anniversary SEVEN7000LTD is set to be SEVEN's biggest release of the year.
A1 - CRYME - London Boy (MCR-T Remix)
CRYME's 808-driven electro, ghetto house hybrid "London Boy" gets the MCR-T treatment, spiced up with a dose of Garage. The Berlin-based artist reshaped the bassline into a gritty reese bass and put in the iconic UK hardcore vocal "your name is not down, you not coming in," perfectly amplifying the track's original UK flair.
A2 - CRYME - London Boy (Roza Terenzi Remix)
Roza Terenzi joins the "London Boy" Remix EP with a sleek, modern tech house cut. Flipping the distinct 808 cowbells into heavily processed percussive elements that bounce through the mix while carrying a melodic line. Her remix is packed with her quirky yet precise sound design and kinetic frequencies. The original vocal phrases are creatively chopped up into fragments and reassembled so they become part of the rhythmic backbone.

B1 - CRYME - London Boy (JakoJako Remix)
JakoJako shows off her genre diversity with a steezy Tech House flip of "London Boy." The talented Berlin-based live act lays down a solid drum foundation and a bouncing bassline - no frills, just a steady groove built for the dancefloor. The composition stays laidback, leaving space for a raw synth melody and her reworked, chopped-up vocal layers that add just the right touch of playful silliness to the track.

B2 - CRYME - London Boy (Original Mix)
On the B-side you will find CRYME's remastered original "London Boy", first released in 2024 and featuring ANTICALM, a British rapper, vocalist, and songwriter whose "You Don't Want This" vocal sample takes center stage. Merging 808-driven Electro and Grime with a touch of Ghetto House, the track reimagines a genre-bending battery of block-party energy in the club setting. With its driving rhythm and unmistakable vocal hook, it remains a powerful tool for DJs and a highlight on any dancefloor.

Mit ihrem Debütalbum »time will tell« setzen FALSE LEFTY den nächsten Meilenstein. Das Duo – Veva (AT) Stehend am minimalistischen Drumset und Tom (GB) an der drei-saitigen Gitarre – bleibt seinem Credo treu: Reduktion bis aufs Maximum. Bittersüße Melodien treffen auf rohe Energie und schaffen ein Soundgewitter zwischen Alternative Rock, Indie und Post-Punk. Kein Füllmaterial, keine Kompromisse, sondern ein eigener Sound, der nach internationalem Erfolg schreit. Man hört Einflüsse von Bands wie The Cure, Radiohead gewürzt mit einer Prise Sex Pistols, doch FALSE LEFTY verwandeln sie in ihr eigenes Gebräu – roh, direkt und voller Haltung. Mit stampfenden Rhythmen, gekonntem Songwriting und dieser besonderen Mischung aus Urgewalt und fragiler Melancholie. Immer kraftvoll, immer unverwechselbar.

A DJ, producer and prolific collaborator, Greg Paulus’s musical career has led to a truly enviable discography. Born in Minnesota and now an essential part of New York’s sprawling musical landscape, Paulus has taken the foundations of an organic childhood education by his father, the composer Stephen Paulus, and seen it blossom into an unpredictable musical journey encompassing house, soul, jazz and hip-hop.

While touring as a trumpet player with indie band Beirut, as well as in Matthew Dear’s live ensemble, back home he was helping to redefine New York’s underground dance scene as one half of No Regular Play. Alongside childhood friend Nick DeBruyn, the pair brought their deeply musical sound to no less than fifty countries across the world. A decade on, and Paulus arrives on Seth Troxler’s Slacker 85 imprint for his long-awaited debut solo LP, ‘Close To Home’, a deeply felt long-play celebration of his personal cornerstones; family, trust and hope.

From the opening, organic swell of ‘Perot’, arranged with Seth Troxler himself alongside John Camp, ‘Close To Home’ introduces itself as a focused, conscious trip, it’s languid trumpet spilling over into the reflective ‘World Keeps Changing’, which introduces Paulus’s philosophy of music as a constant. ‘Midtown Mirage’ meanwhile leans into the idea of the city itself as a collaborator, resisting pressure and finding its own restful groove. Back over the river, ‘Bond’ roots itself in Brooklyn with a contribution from resident Dillon Cooper, flipping rap standards amid psychedelic flourishes.

Paulus nods toward his dancefloor form on ‘NRG’, a slinky, lo-slung club groove that seamlessly evolves to meld the artist’s nocturnal and studio instincts. In contrast, ‘Real Job’ switches the tempo on Paulus’s MPC to embody an old-school, beatdown flavour, subtly teased out alongside composer and sound designer, Taylor Bense. Doubling down on this languorous groove, ‘Hat Down’ introduces a full-scale No Regular Play reunion, the first of two collaborative tracks that recall the duo’s imperial phase of confidently minimal productions, while evolving their craft.

Following a few missed calls made with love taken from Paulus’s answering machine on ‘$1000’ the minimal, reflective arrangement of ‘Hold Dear’ finds the artist stripping back his layered sound for a skittering, vulnerable exploration of intimacy and life’s devotions.

For a memorable finale, Paulus recruits jazz prodigy Michael Feinberg to deliver upright funk on the deliciously rich ‘Sometimes It’s About Us’. A purely celebratory collage of bopping rhythms and vocals, sharply plucked guitars and archive samples, ‘Close To Home’ concludes with Paulus leading his friends, ensemble and many influences in rare harmony.

Swimming Paul’s music has always lived in the push-and-pull between euphoria and melancholy; the rare kind of electronic music that can make you cry while your body keeps moving.



On Smiling Through the Pain 2 (out October 24 via Headroom Records), the French-born, London-based producer doubles down on that emotional duality, delivering an album that feels as much like a diary as it does a DJ set.

Over the course of 15 tracks, Paul stitches together late-night catharsis, suburban nostalgia, and the jagged tenderness of early adulthood. The record is sequenced like an unbroken night out: the giddy anticipation, the sudden moments of reflection, the quiet comedown as the sun edges in. It’s an album that refuses to treat joy and sadness as opposites, they coexist here, often in the same chord progression.



“I don’t want to escape the feelings, I want to bring them with me” Paul says. “If you can’t stop thinking about something, you might as well dance with it.”

That philosophy runs through the singles: the emotional release of Holly (with Junior Simba), the aching nostalgia of Different Time, the hypnotic haze of Hard 2 Sleep, and the house-driven Drinking to Get Drunk, a bittersweet ode to nights spent outrunning your own thoughts. Elsewhere, Liza M1 folds heartbreak into an almost triumphant piano hook, while Shine a Light urges listeners to take risks and live without hesitation—as if youth’s boldness could be bottled.



Since debuting in 2023, Swimming Paul has quietly built an empire on emotional resonance: 150 million streams across platforms, 1.9 million monthly listeners on Spotify and more than 50 editorial placements (including Dance Party, Crying on the Dancefloor, Electronic Rising….), 10,000+ radio spins worldwide, and sold-out tours across Europe and North America. His sound has earned co-signs from BBC Radio 1, Triple J, KCRW, Sirius XM and a wave of DJs who value melody as much as momentum.

But Smiling Through the Pain 2 isn’t chasing charts, it’s chasing connections. Paul’s global fanbase, nurtured through a lively Discord community and nights on the road, has become a two-way conversation, with fans’ stories feeding back into the music’s emotional core.
This autumn, Paul takes the album to stages that match its ambition, from London to a string of US club dates, festivals and intimate pop ups designed for shared release.



Smiling Through the Pain 2 is an invitation to feel everything at once. To sweat through the sadness. To let your guard down under strobe lights. To realise that the best nights out don’t make you forget; they help you remember.

A collection of stunning Persian-tuned piano pieces cut from Iranian national radio broadcasts made for the Golha programmes between 1956 & 1965...

Morteza Mahjubi (1900-1965) was a Iranian pianist & composer who developed a unique tuning system for the piano which enabled the instrument to be played in all the different modes and dastgahs of traditional Persian art music. Known as Piano-ye Sonnati, this technique allowed Mahjubi to express the unique ornamental and monophonic nature of Persian classical music on this western instrument - mimicking the tar, setar & santur and extracting sounds from the piano which are still unprecedented to this day.

An active performer and composer from a young age, Mahjubi made his most notable mark as key contributor and soloist for the Golha (Flowers of Persian Song and Poetry) radio programmes. These seminal broadcasts platformed an encyclopaedic wealth of traditional Persian classical music and poetry on Iranian national radio between 1956 until the revolution in 1979.

Presented here is a collection of Morteza Mahjoubi's stunningly virtuosic improvised pieces broadcast on Golha between the programme's inception until Mahjoubi's death in 1965 - mostly solo, though at times peppered with tombak, violin & some segments of poetry.

The vast collection of Golha radio programmes was put together thanks to the incredible work of Jane Lewisohn & the Golha Project as part of the British Library's Endangered Archives programme, comprising 1,578 radio programs consisting of approximately 847 hours of broadcasts.

First Word Records are proud to bring you 'Penny Ballads', a 5-track EP from Royce Wood Junior.

Royce Wood Junior is a Grammy & Mercury Award-nominated musician, songwriter and record producer from London, currently based in Brighton. As a multi-instrumentalist, he's collaborated with a litany of brilliant artists over the years, such as Jamie Woon, Nao, Disclosure, Jessie Ware, Olivia Dean, Joy Crookes, Jamie Lidell and Jordan Rakei, additionally to touring with the likes of the legendary Thomas Dolby. He's released two acclaimed solo albums to date ('The Ashen Tang' in 2015, and 'No Two Blue Ticks' in 2021).

'Penny Ballads' demonstrates RWJ's varied talents, with a collection of alternative soul compositions, each one as unique as the next. It includes the first two singles, the Poplife-Prince era flavoured 'Go Get Your Money', and the double-time future funk adrenaline shot, 'Clean Up', along with three previously-unreleased tracks. 'Beretta' is low-slung soul funk, beginning with quirky squelchy synths, before the soulful lead vocal of feature artist Lucey Way breezes in to melt everyone's hearts. 'Things' sweeps in next, an infectiously soulful midtempo heavy soul bop, with an instant earwork of a hook, like a modern-day Steely Dan / Doobie Brothers, complete with a head-nodding string section to end the track. The collection concludes on a more melancholy downtempo tip with 'Rolling'; an almost-folktronic anthem, with a key refrain that wouldn't be out of place on a 70's Stevie piece.

RWJ (aka Jim Wood) says of this project… "Back in the 17 and 1800's Troubadours and minstrels would go from Tavern to Tavern selling Penny Ballads, single sheets of music and lyrics written quickly and frivolously to make a quick buck.. It strikes me that we're in a similar phase in the way we value music in 2025. An old Penny Ballad was cheap and dog-eared, ink-smudged, sung aloud by firelight, Now songs live in the digital ether, dissolved in the air, a ghostly breath paid in micro cents. The new era of Penny Balladry is here, and weird.

This EP is a snapshot of my writing over a two year period. Focussed on minimal recording styles, one mic on the drums, generally first or second takes on parts and vocals, I wanted the music to feel like small moments with lyrics that talk about the weird nuances of being alive as a latter stage human on the cusp of the Ai revolution. Culturally so evolved, but physiologically still just a bunch of mammals walking about with primitive fears and needs. Just trying to reconcile it all moment to moment…"

Previous support for Royce's music has included Radio 1's Future Sounds, BBC 6 Music's New Music Fix, Annie Mac, Clara Amfo, Jo Whiley (BBC Radio 2), Mary Anne Hobbs, Jamz Supernova, Tom Robinson, Huw Stephens (BBC 6 Music), Zane Lowe and MistaJam. There have been sessions previously for the likes of Red Bull and press from Huck, Line of Best Fit, Clash, Aesthetica & DIY magazine.

Entirely self-written and self-produced, this EP gives a solid taste of RWJ's talents. A deeply funky diverse set of music from an immensely talented individual.

'Penny Ballads' is due to be released on vinyl & digital, 24th October 2025.

The vinyl version also includes an exclusive additional mix of the first single 'Go Get Your Money'.

Recorded in concert at the University of Sheffield in March 2025, Reality Is Not A Theory is the first collaboration between Mark Fell and Pat Thomas. Major figures in British experimental music since the 1990s, Fell and Thomas have developed their rigorous practices from radically different backgrounds and perspectives: where Fell’s singular take on synthetic abstraction emerged from Sheffield’s electronic underground, Thomas is a virtuoso improvising pianist steeped in jazz and modernist art music who has simultaneously worked with sampler-based electronics for decades. As the record’s wonderfully academic subtitle explains, we are presented here with two sides of ‘algorithmic and improvised music for computer and piano’, exemplifying both players’ insatiable search for new (and sometimes uncomfortable) playing situations.

The performance begins with Fell’s electronics close to the timbres of acoustic percussion, attacks that suggest wood, metal or glass threaded along a rapid pulse while Thomas focuses on the lowest registers of the piano, deadening the strings. As Fell’s electronics start to ring out and occupy more harmonic space, Thomas turns to wide, repeated clusters, which slowly expand into patterns of chords. Like in his recent solo recordings and his trio work with Joel Grip and Anton Gerbal, Thomas’ playing combines extreme dissonance with a deep lyrical sense. Fell’s work gradually shifts its focus toward drum sounds, drawing on the microtemporal processes that have characterized his practice in recent decades. Heard together with Thomas’ probing piano, the computer sounds call up unexpected associations with the klangfarben antics of improv drummers like Paul Lovens or Tony Oxley. Throughout its second half, the music grows increasingly frenetic, as Thomas sounds out rapid, irregularly repeated figures and beautifully sour chords in the upper register, while Fell’s percussion develops into angular pan-pipe-like feedback and waves of glissandi.

With great confidence and patience, Fell and Thomas often let their individual contributions remain rhythmically distinct and unsynchronised, allowing unexpected correspondence and coincidence to guide the music’s development. Recorded in a hall named after Sheffield steel manufacturer and Master Cutler Mark Firth, the location might suggest a model for understanding how Fell and Thomas interact here: two workers in the same workshop, each immersed in their own part of the production process. Arriving in a striking sleeve designed by Mark Fell, with liner notes by Francis Plagne, Reality Is Not A Theory is an invigorating document of the meeting of two mavericks of contemporary music.

His fourth album, City Music works as a counterpart to Morby’s acclaimed 2016 release Singing Saw, an autobiographical set that reflected the solitude and landscape in which it was recorded. Saw was imagined as “an old bookshelf with a young Bob and Joni staring back at me, blank and timeless. They live here, in this left side of my brain, smoking cigarettes and playing acoustic guitars while lying on an unmade bed.” And now follows City Music, the yang to its yin, the heads to its tails. It is a collection crafted using the other side of its creator’s brain, the jumping off point perhaps best once again encapsulated by an image. “Here, Lou Reed and Patti Smith stare out at the listener,” explains Morby. “Stretched out on a living room floor they are somewhere in mid-70s Manhattan, also smoking cigarettes.” It finds Morby exploring similar themes of solitude, but this time framed by a window of an uptown apartment that looks down upon an international urban landscape “exposed like a giant bleeding wound.”

For his last solo record ‘Through a Room’, Bill Nace shifted his usual saturated guitar sound and added tapes, hurdy gurdy, doughnut pipe, bird calls and the mysterious Japanese taishōgoto. Setting up for the final night of his three day residency at OTO with only the taishōgoto soundchecked, Nace hoped that Parker would arrive with his small soprano as its opposite. “I’ve been interested in state change, you know, playing until there’s a shift in time.” Known for his development of multiphonics to produce a constantly shifting pattern, Evan Parker has evolved an instantly recognizable sound - his work the soprano most distinct. Happily, it was the soprano Evan brought with him and as soon as the two start to play they entwine - taking off in a double helix of keys and reed primed for endless reconfiguration. Space warps under the velocity of playing, the pitch rising unrelentingly. It felt like unending lift off in the room, sheer energy until the last note makes remember your feet have been on the floor the whole time. Total time bending shredding.

–

"They had never played together before. They had never even met each other before this springtime 2024 concert at London’s Café Oto.

Evan Parker, circular breathing maestro of the saxophone, a legend in the universe that is Free Improvisation since the late 1960s and Bill Nace, one of the most intriguing experimental “noise” guitarists of the 1990s/2000s underground scene.

For those of us who have been enamored by the live and documented work of both these gents, this Café Oto duo was a must-hear event. It could have gone anywhere musically and that would have been totally fine. Particularly with Evan having a history of being thrown into a variety of challenging collaborations throughout his career, employing the learned elegance of trust in his own sensitivity to listening, responding, leading, following, sparring, intertwining, dialoguing, creating in the instant and, essentially, dignifying the non-hierarchical grace of chance.

The aesthetics of socialist consideration in Evan Parker’s playing, in his community of expanded and personal technique, for a younger player such as Bill Nace, strikes an exemplary model. This notion of respect would be entirely the reason Nace, when offered a residency at the most critical “new music” room in England, would request to play in duo with Parker.

Bill Nace came to prominence mostly during the apex of experimental music activity in and around Western Massachusetts in the early days of the aughts, with a focus on visual art and free improvisation guitar action. He could be found in the daytime hours, his head hanging down over a notepad, penning fine-tuned illustrations and abstract line drawings, while in the evenings he’d be attending any number of basement noise gigs, many of which he’d be participating in. His guitar style came across as being informed as much as by the physicality of his writing utensils in friction to the page as it was to his hearing and redefining of radical recordings ranging anywhere from the Black Unity Group to Black Flag.

Utilizing various metal files and other small cylindrical objects Bill would allow his guitar and amplifier to be in tandem with the improvisatory movements of his body as the instrument balanced, intentionally and, at times, precariously, upon his lap. The performances came across thrilling and daring and they would be mostly in the context of venues nothing more than a low-ceilinged damp and dank New England basement, a clutch of people hanging onto rusty pipes or sitting up on dilapidated washer/dryer machines, the shards of Bill’s “file guitar” sounds ringing out like the most alive music on Earth.

By the time Bill reached Café Oto in early 2024 he had relocated to Philadelphia all the while releasing a succession of collaborative LPs on his Open Mouth label to present his developing progression of solo and collaborative work. He also would find himself considerably engaged with playing the electric taishōgoto, a keyboard-activated string instrument from Japan which can exist as a one, two, four, five, or six string oblong sound object. Bill’s approach to the taishōgoto would not be too unlike his approach to the traditional electric guitar, though no outboard implements such as files, sticks, and rocks are utilized. The similarity would lie wholly with Bill’s full immersion of high velocity action-playing where, with the taishōgoto, an electric drone beauty occurs. The flurry of sonics and resultant harmonics emanating from the amplifier (which Bill opts to dial into with borderline loud-as fuck volume settings) furthers the meta-mantra properties of the instrument in an astounding display of drone dynamism.

This sound world of Bill’s two-stringed taishōgoto on this Café Oto night worked beautifully with Evan Parker’s improvisatory saxophone conceptions. The duology achieved instant lift off at ground zero only to find it’s eventual finale as if it were organically ordained. Time seemingly morphed from its ancient human construct of control, rendered inconsequential to the torrential transcendence of the room wildly activated by the magic resonance of the multi-directional pan-spatial sonance of the music as if it were some beatific blessing. It was one of those nights where art as a liberating force of spirit gifted the listeners with an offering of exaltation and joy. It was entirely mystical and mind blowing. A night of Total Music."

Thurston Moore, London, 2025

A collection of stunning Persian-tuned piano pieces cut from Iranian national radio broadcasts made for the Golha programmes between 1956 & 1965...

Morteza Mahjubi (1900-1965) was a Iranian pianist & composer who developed a unique tuning system for the piano which enabled the instrument to be played in all the different modes and dastgahs of traditional Persian art music. Known as Piano-ye Sonnati, this technique allowed Mahjubi to express the unique ornamental and monophonic nature of Persian classical music on this western instrument - mimicking the tar, setar & santur and extracting sounds from the piano which are still unprecedented to this day.

An active performer and composer from a young age, Mahjubi made his most notable mark as key contributor and soloist for the Golha (Flowers of Persian Song and Poetry) radio programmes. These seminal broadcasts platformed an encyclopaedic wealth of traditional Persian classical music and poetry on Iranian national radio between 1956 until the revolution in 1979.

Presented here is a collection of Morteza Mahjoubi's stunningly virtuosic improvised pieces broadcast on Golha between the programme's inception until Mahjoubi's death in 1965 - mostly solo, though at times peppered with tombak, violin & some segments of poetry.

The vast collection of Golha radio programmes was put together thanks to the incredible work of Jane Lewisohn & the Golha Project as part of the British Library's Endangered Archives programme, comprising 1,578 radio programs consisting of approximately 847 hours of broadcasts.

Moving freely through time and space via experimental DIY recordings since 2009, Joasihno return with their fourth album "Spots".

“Find your spot in the shade,” a truly laid-back and incredibly soft-spoken MC once advised, yet in a world that seems to get shadier every day, it’s probably time to finally get out and face the sun. Southern German experimental pop duo Joasihno – initial solo founder Cico Beck (The Notwist, Aloa Input, Spirit Fest) and drummer/composer Nico Sierig (Instrument, Fehler Kuti) – seem to know exactly when it’s time to shine. Idiosyncratic genre tweakers since day one, they have been operating at their own pace, mostly staying in their own shady corner. Yet, almost a decade after their most recent “Meshes” (an album that came with a whole legion of tiny music robots), it’s high time for them to take over more corners, to reclaim even more spots between lo-fi and sci-fi, retro electronica and contemporary classic. Drawing upon influences as varied as Reich, Riley, and Ryuichi, múm, Meek, and Moondog, while also nodding to other experimental twosomes (e.g. The Books), the duo’s fourth full-length “Spots” is set to arrive via Alien Transistor in late 2025.

Leaving soulless automation and all things artificial to others, Joasihno launch the latest record on “2 Squares” that feel like a peaceful, almost bucolic version of retro space age: lights blink ever so softly as easy-going bass tones point at today’s introspective flight arc. Electronic shapes align and things lift off – with a majestic 8-bit sunrise soon appearing right in front of us. Whereas playful title song “Spots” is a miniature Rube Goldberg kind of device, with quirky plucked strings and glitches setting off more and more contraption layers, “Crackleboom” is uncharted energy, an open landscape, an expanding bonfire that leads to a long-forgotten piano, all dust-covered in some kind of saloon. Space might be only noise to others, here, it’s foreboding screeches (“Dizzle Whistle”) that make room for A-side center piece “Forest Lights”: a steady beat that lures us to a clearance in the woods. Things break and shatter in the distance, but this spot right here is for hypnosis, dancing, sylvan spirits. And yeah, it’s surprisingly hot down here in the undergrowth…

Opening side B with a fun banger that takes the unhinged dancing to the playground – “Characa Orb.” feels like French kids on swings going crazy, a tipsy, tongue-in-cheek electro blow-out between Oizo and Orbis Tertius –, things get even more cinematic throughout the second half. Even the cheapest, lo-fiest gear is sufficient to make “The Slow Hour” glow like true, timeless pop royalty. In fact, the very same pop spirits roam and celebrate freely in the chirpy coves of mesmerizing “Detune Lagoon” – more hand-crafted sci-fi/lo-fi loops you’ll only find after facing the ghosts of Lynch or Sakamoto on those night-time trails under the “Deep Moon”. It’s all DIY spots, spots that leave room to dream or dangle, drape yourself over or dive into. Returning to the leafy bower on a melancholy post rock tip, we eventually learn that “Death Is Real” – and so we’re left with a laterna magica that turns and turns and turns. It’s a beautiful spot where light and shadows keep on dancing, just like they’ve always done, ever since the dawn of this madcap universe.

Karen Willems is a Belgian drummer/percussionist active in various fields. Started as a drummer in rock and pop bands. With a number of musicians she built up a tradition within improvised music and sound art. Since 2020, with ‘TERRE SOL’ Willems is searching for personal modifications within her play of instruments and objects, with the focus on solo work and compositions.

"When I make music, there’s no plan. I draw my inspiration from everyday life. Small encounters, people, and the greatest source, of course, is nature. There we find all the beauty, all the sounds we need. With my solo work I try to stay far away from my familiar drum set. Only then I can create a special universe. Eccentricity and playfulness go hand in hand with exercises in tension and release, and calls for connection in antisocial times. It's difficult in this world obsessed with productivity and results, and you really have to be crazy to release music these days. So ‘A Fool’s Guide to Reality’ is a fitting title." Karen Willems

All music performed by Karen Willems using citer, casio, fieldrecordings, tambourin, mikado, xylophon, pots, bells, kindergarten instruments, snare, noisebox, crispy shakers, synths, effects...

Legendary Metal Band STRYPER Announces Long-Awaited Christmas Album 'The Greatest Gift Of All' out November 21 via Frontiers Music Srl Iconic and long-running Christian metal band STRYPER is set to release their long-anticipated Christmas album, The Greatest Gift Of All, on November 21st via Frontiers Music Srl. Fans have been requesting a holiday record for years—and now, the wait is finally over. The celebration begins this July with the release of the first single, "Still the Light". STRYPER's current lineup features original members Michael Sweet, Robert Sweet, and Oz Fox, alongside bassist Perry Richardson. Together, they continue to craft what they believe is some of the most powerful and inspiring music of their career. The band recently wrapped up a successful world tour in support of their latest studio album, When We Were Kings. The tour spanned the USA, Europe, and South America, and marked the band’s 40th anniversary—a milestone celebrated with a dynamic setlist featuring classic hits, fan favorites from the newer era, outfit changes, and an upgraded stage production. As STRYPER continues to evolve, they remain a cornerstone of Christian rock and metal, blending faith and heavy music for four decades. Looking ahead, the band is also working on a Kickstarter-funded documentary directed by Chris Atkins, offering a behind-the-scenes look at their remarkable journey. With over 10 million albums sold worldwide and several Billboard Top 40 hits, STRYPER shows no signs of slowing down as they continue to write, record, and perform for their global fanbase.

Relive the early years of Madness with 'Hit Parade Vol. 1 1979-1986'. This 23-track 2LP set remembers the early years of Madness; containing a selection of their biggest hits and best loved tunes. It includes 23 UK Top 40 hits such as 'One Step Beyond', 'Embarrassment', 'My Girl', and 'Night Boat To Cairo'.

Beautifully packaged in a deluxe, gatefold sleeve, this 2LP collection is pressed on translucent red vinyl. The fully illustrated inner sleeves contain new liner notes with various band members and long-time producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, in conversation with renowned author and journalist Paul Sexton.

Firmly established as national treasures and as one of the UK’s most cherished and beloved bands, Madness are adored by their loyal and huge following. Their consistently sold-out shows illustrate their enduring qualities resulting in their popularity continuing to grow and grow.

Experience the modern era of Madness with 'Hit Parade Vol. 2 1992-2024'. This 22-track 2LP set relives the more modern, contemporary years of Madness; containing a selection of hit singles, fan favourites and much-loved tunes. Including 'NW5', 'Shame and Scandal', 'Sorry', 'Drip Fed Fred', 'Mr Apples' and the Top 10 single 'Lovestruck'.

Beautifully packaged in a deluxe, gatefold sleeve, this 2LP collection is pressed on translucent blue vinyl. The fully illustrated inner sleeves contain new liner notes with various band members and long-time producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, in conversation with renowned author and journalist Paul Sexton.

Firmly established as national treasures and as one of the UK’s most cherished and beloved bands, Madness are adored by their loyal and huge following. Their consistently sold-out shows illustrate their enduring qualities resulting in their popularity continuing to grow and grow.

Following a string of acclaimed collaborations, including Agua Dulce with percussionist Laura Robles and Mapambazuko alongside Congolese guitarist Titi Bakorta, Peruvian artist Alejandra Cárdenas (aka Ale Hop) returns with her most personal work to date yet, A Body Like a Home. Marking her first album under her birth name, the project is a sonic memoir exploring the tangled realms of trauma, recovery, and love through autobiographical soundscapes.
A Body Like a Home is the artist at her most exposed. Comprising 13 songs and 15 poems, the album sees her set aside collaborative fusions for solo catharsis, channeling years of turbulence - intergenerational scars left by colonialism, racism, domestic violence, and alcoholism - into a work that oscillates between brutality and tenderness. Cárdenas states: “I grew up under Alberto Fujimori’s dictatorship, when a veil of hopelessness seemed to settle over everything. This is the backdrop of the album. The songs and poems trace the inevitable loop between private wounds - addiction, domestic violence, fractured intimacy - and Peru’s national scars, carved by colonialism. It’s not a straight story or a resolution. Writing and composing became a ritual of digging for meaning, into what’s buried, disguised, or renamed, until the body itself became a living archive.
” At the heart of the album is Cárdenas’s own voice - part witness, part confessor - reciting over layers of electric guitars, electronic textures, the haunting violin of Mexican musician Gibrana Cervantes, and a collage of field recordings, from rainfall, muffled whispers, broken glass, to archival protest footage from Peru. The result is a work that resonates like a diary written in sound.
The first single, "Motherland", is a searing testimony where Cárdenas voice cracks under the weight of history and personal loss. Amid a storm of distorted guitars, she traces the cyclical legacies of colonialism, from state massacres branding Indigenous bodies as “terrorists” to the spiral of addiction as an unavoidable future. The lyrics draw parallels between political and domestic violence: a mother’s drunken knife pressed to her chest, and a motherland where racism is currency. She utters: “sacrifice demands a body.” Yet, amid the wreckage, a willful grip on love and faith persists. Ultimately, A Body Like a Home is a document of transformation. Tracks like "Evangelina" and the title piece "A Body Like a Home" hold space for resilience, spirituality, and love, while "Early Road" and "Going South" thread subtle nods to Peruvian folklore, opening up bright vignettes into a sense of belonging.
The poetry chapbook accompanying A Body Like a Home (five of its pieces are also recited on the album) extends the work, building a parallel architecture. Oscillating between the documentary and the mythic, the intimate and the forensic, the profane and the oniric, these poems practice a theology of the ordinary, where everyday objects - cameras, knives, moth-eaten cotton - are charged withspiritual and historical weight. Here, the body is land, house, battlefield, collective pain, geological territory; and trauma is, in contrast, archival, cellular, ritualistic, inherited. Read alongside the music, the stories refract across two mediums: songs give them breath and poems give them bone.

"On the Huh" is taken from the deepest UK slang term 'on the huh' meaning: Not level, crooked or wonky. Comprised of singer Sloss (Braindance), guitarist Chris (Infa Riot), bassist Dave (Special Duties) and drummer Tom (Infa Riot), "ON THE HUH" from Norwich have taken the scene by storm with their first album "Bit on the side", which was sold out in a few weeks. Now it's time for their new album "Second Time Around"! The 12 new songs are a perfect match of glam, brickwall, and streetpunk with strong Oi! and rock and roll influences. "On the Huh" are "on our own way" and what really sets this record miles apart, however, is the sense for catchy songwriting and the fun and authenticity they convey with every chord. "Class of 65" is a melodic homage to the original Mods from the 1960s and the youth cult that like rock and roll, influenced rebels and subcultures from Punk, Oi to Brit-Pop and beyond. Society is changing, but good old British punk rock will never go out of style. Songs like "Generation apart" or "Spirit unbroken" hit the bullseye. When you sit at the bar in an English pub after work, watching the guys at the dartboard, 'On the Huh' could be sitting at the next table. From the jukebox, 'Sussed Out' and 'Don't Wanna Be Like You' are blasting. You take a big sip of your pint, smile quietly to yourself, and nod. Outside, the world keeps spinning rapidly and has forgotten what really matters. "'Second time around' is like an old friend to you_ `Is there a more beautiful compliment for a band and their music?

"On the Huh" is taken from the deepest UK slang term 'on the huh' meaning: Not level, crooked or wonky. Comprised of singer Sloss (Braindance), guitarist Chris (Infa Riot), bassist Dave (Special Duties) and drummer Tom (Infa Riot), "ON THE HUH" from Norwich have taken the scene by storm with their first album "Bit on the side", which was sold out in a few weeks. Now it's time for their new album "Second Time Around"! The 12 new songs are a perfect match of glam, brickwall, and streetpunk with strong Oi! and rock and roll influences. "On the Huh" are "on our own way" and what really sets this record miles apart, however, is the sense for catchy songwriting and the fun and authenticity they convey with every chord. "Class of 65" is a melodic homage to the original Mods from the 1960s and the youth cult that like rock and roll, influenced rebels and subcultures from Punk, Oi to Brit-Pop and beyond. Society is changing, but good old British punk rock will never go out of style. Songs like "Generation apart" or "Spirit unbroken" hit the bullseye. When you sit at the bar in an English pub after work, watching the guys at the dartboard, 'On the Huh' could be sitting at the next table. From the jukebox, 'Sussed Out' and 'Don't Wanna Be Like You' are blasting. You take a big sip of your pint, smile quietly to yourself, and nod. Outside, the world keeps spinning rapidly and has forgotten what really matters. "'Second time around' is like an old friend to you_ `Is there a more beautiful compliment for a band and their music?

"On the Huh" is taken from the deepest UK slang term 'on the huh' meaning: Not level, crooked or wonky. Comprised of singer Sloss (Braindance), guitarist Chris (Infa Riot), bassist Dave (Special Duties) and drummer Tom (Infa Riot), "ON THE HUH" from Norwich have taken the scene by storm with their first album "Bit on the side", which was sold out in a few weeks. Now it's time for their new album "Second Time Around"! The 12 new songs are a perfect match of glam, brickwall, and streetpunk with strong Oi! and rock and roll influences. "On the Huh" are "on our own way" and what really sets this record miles apart, however, is the sense for catchy songwriting and the fun and authenticity they convey with every chord. "Class of 65" is a melodic homage to the original Mods from the 1960s and the youth cult that like rock and roll, influenced rebels and subcultures from Punk, Oi to Brit-Pop and beyond. Society is changing, but good old British punk rock will never go out of style. Songs like "Generation apart" or "Spirit unbroken" hit the bullseye. When you sit at the bar in an English pub after work, watching the guys at the dartboard, 'On the Huh' could be sitting at the next table. From the jukebox, 'Sussed Out' and 'Don't Wanna Be Like You' are blasting. You take a big sip of your pint, smile quietly to yourself, and nod. Outside, the world keeps spinning rapidly and has forgotten what really matters. "'Second time around' is like an old friend to you_ `Is there a more beautiful compliment for a band and their music?

"PROG-ROCK LEGENDS SPOCK’S BEARD ARRIVE ON MADFISH WITH NEW ALBUM THE ARCHAEOPTIMIST. GATEFOLD 2LP VERSION, PRESSED ON RED VINYL. “mad time signatures, impossible harmonies, intense arrangements…sensational”
THE PROG REPORT “a true heir of the legacy of bands as Yes, Gentle Giant, Pink Floyd & old Genesis…a truly fascinating voyage.” METAL TEMPLE If Spock’s Beard have taught us anything over their 30+ years in the business, it’s that they have no interest in becoming their own tribute act. The Archaeoptimist - their latest offering & first release on Madfish - is not a retreat into old habits, but a recalibration. Just when you think they’re settling in, they kick the walls out instead. At the centre of this particular storm is Ryo Okumoto, whose fingerprints are all over the album - not just as a performer, but as a driving creative force. Teaming up with co-writer Michael Whiteman (I Am the Manic Whale) & longstanding bandmembers Alan Morse & Ted Leonard, Ryo has helped shape an album that is undeniably Spock’s Beard with a characteristic wry smile to boot. The album was produced by Okumoto & recorded at each band member’s respective home studios. Esteemed producer Rich Mouser (Dream Theater/Weezer) takes up the mixing & mastering duties. Over more than 30 years, Spock’s Beard have established themselves as one of modern progressive music’s most exciting & consistent acts, with live shows as renowned as their studio work & tours that draw sold-out audiences across the globe. Their albums regularly chart worldwide, with 2018’s Noise Floor reaching #3 on the UK Official Rock & Metal Chart & #6 on the Official Progressive Albums Chart.

DarkSonicTales is a project by Rolf Gisler and his eponymous album his first for Hallow Ground. Having been granted an artist residency by the label in a 300 year-old farm house in the Swiss countryside in autumn 2019, the Lucerne-based musician and sound artist explored the peculiar sonic environment of the building and its surroundings through the use of field recordings, modular synthesizers, guitar, bass, kalimbas, a singing saw as well as self-built instruments. "DarkSonicTales" starts with kalimba sounds and field recordings, setting the stage for "Sonic Darkness"- a self-referential spoken word piece whose sinister jazz-like sound calls to mind Bohren & der Club of Gore. The following "Spring Feelings" contrasts insect sounds with harsh noise elements, elegiac drones and a throbbing rhythm. It's not quite what you'd expect from a piece with such a title, but the stories that Gisler tells throughout the record are more concerned with uncovering the hidden histories underneath what meets the eyes than (re-)creating idylls. The nine minute-long "I Still Believe" further underlines that by bringing together glistening synthesizer notes with industrial-like drones and field recordings that give it a palpable effect before Gisler unexpectedly changes course and quite literally bursts into song. Towards the end of "DarkSonicTales," the music becomes notably more minimalistic. Gisler experiments with the dynamics of modular drones on "Kind of Restless," juxtaposing birdsong and ominous electronic noises on "Best Buddies" before a mid-tempo beat emerges, making the record close on a decidedly hopeful note. These dark sonic tales, they have a happy ending. "DarkSonicTales" is an organic album in more than one sense of the word. Reacting to and reflecting the world around him as well as expressing his inner one, Gisler gives the sounds at the core of his multifaceted compositions space and lets them breathe. Working along stark contrasts and with surprising twists, he also shines a light on the atmospheric and emotional ambiguity of the world he encountered during his solitary artist residency-unearthing the hidden layers underneath what is perceivable.

Mit Communication veröffentlicht Karl Bartos sein visionäres Soloalbum aus dem Jahr 2003 erneut - und trifft damit den Nerv der Zeit. Als prägendes Mitglied von Kraftwerk war Bartos maßgeblich an Klassikern wie "The Model", "The Robots" und "Numbers" beteiligt. Nach seinem Ausstieg 1990 setzte er mit Communication seine musikalische Reise fort - nun mit einem kritischen Blick auf die digitale Medienwelt. Das Album ist eine klanglich präzise und inhaltlich scharfsinnige Auseinandersetzung mit Themen wie Bildüberflutung, Identitätskonstruktion und der Fragmentierung von Realität. Was damals wie ein Blick in die Zukunft wirkte, ist heute aktueller denn je: Smartphones, soziale Medien und algorithmische Manipulation bestimmen unseren Alltag. Bartos gelingt es, elektronische Popmusik mit gesellschaftlicher Reflexion zu verbinden - ein seltenes Zusammenspiel von Klangfreude und Medienkritik. Die Neuauflage auf Bureau B ist keine nostalgische Rückschau, sondern ein Statement zur Gegenwart. "Wir leben in einer Zeit massiver Verhaltensmanipulation", sagt Bartos. "Kybernetik, künstliche Intelligenz - das ist eine große Herausforderung für die Menschheit."

Two years after making their bow via a fine contribution to the Claremont Editions 3 compilation, Nuremberg’s Neumayer Station are ready to drop their debut full-length excursion, the mesmerising and immersive Crossings.

The brainchild of drummer-turned-producer Michael Kargel, a musician with a bulging CV that includes stints in various German indie-pop and rockabilly bands, Crossings was co-produced and mixed by Frank Mollena (best known to Claremont 56 fans as the man behind the Fürsattl and Bambi Davidson projects), with additional contributions by Alexander Sticht and an impressive roll call of guest musicians plucked from Nuremberg’s vibrant musical underground.

Recorded at different points over the last three years, the eight tracks showcased on Neumayer Station’s inspired debut album draw influence from the hypnotism of classic German ‘kosmische’ recordings, the freewheeling and stoned headiness of CAN, and the gently unfurling beauty of sun soaked Balearica. Kargel, Mollena and their collaborators set the tone with opener ‘Unterführung’, where Sticht’s layered and sonically hazy vocalisations rise above space-rock guitar motifs, droning analogue synth sounds, languid bass and slow-motion drum breaks. With effects aplenty and all manner of melodic electronic flourishes, it’s a deeply psychedelic and mind-expanding affair.

‘Nalut’ follows, with Kargel’s own atmospheric howls and whistles cannily combining with sun-bright tropical guitars, echoing chords and delay-laden saxophone solos riding the dub-flecked, low-slung groove. The collective’s Balearic influences are explored in more sonic detail on ‘A Gentle Flow’, a shuffling and soft-focus affair marked out by emotive piano & jazz guitar, brushed percussion, sunrise-ready synths and pleasingly stretched-out electronic textures. Neumayer Station return to this drifting, morning-fresh and eyes-closed sound later in the LP, via the wonderous ‘Von der Morgenröte’.

The heady influence of spaced-out dub production techniques comes to the fore on ‘Bassrutscher’, an Alexander Sticht co-production rich in Americana-influenced guitar textures, metronomic dub bass, rim-shot heavy drums, mazy organ and orange-hued sundown sounds. It ushers in the more up-tempo shuffle of ‘Zielgerade’, an inner space, out-of-mind affair whose driving but loose-limbed groove provides a platform for exotic, droning and otherworldly guitar, sax and synth sounds. As with all great albums, Crossings gently builds towards a triumphant and memorable conclusion. The spacey Balearic/kosmische crossover of ‘Feeling Forst’, where darting intergalactic synth sounds rub shoulders with gentle acoustic guitars in a hallucinatory soundscape, tees up closing cut ‘Crossings’, the krautrock-rooted, sax-sporting slab of enveloping late-night beauty that first introduced listeners to Neumayer Station back in 2023. It’s a fitting conclusion to a staggeringly good debut album.

Infotext ENG

After establishing himself as one of Europe's most distinctive voices in instrumental hip-hop, Mr. Käfer is ready to tell a different story. His third solo album, A Past Sense, arriving via Melting Pot Music on 11th November, shows a bold creative evolution from his signature lo-fi aesthetic into lush, collaborative territory that spans continents and genres.

His sixth project for Melting Pot Music marks a creative leap from the mood-driven, jazz-tinged instrumentals that built his reputation on releases like Lost Reflections (2019), Orientation (2020), and Now/Again I and II (2021, 2023). Now he's orchestrating a 14-track journey that weaves together hip-hop, soul, jazz, and North African rhythms through collaborations with carefully selected artists including Novine (GER), J-Tek (US), Kenji (US) and Cloudhead (AT).
Thematically, the album explores how memory reshapes identity, questioning the gap between who we were and who we've become. The visual side comes courtesy of acclaimed photographer and art director Robert Winter, capturing this nostalgic-yet-progressive spirit. A Past Sense will also be released on LP.
With A Past Sense, Mr. Käfer steps out from behind the boards and into the spotlight—trading lo-fi playlist comfort and algorithm-driven streams for something deeper. A past sense, maybe. But definitely a future sound.
Infotext DE
Europas instrumentaler Hip-Hop bekommt einen neuen Sound. Mit seinem dritten Soloalbum „A Past Sense“ verabschiedet sich Mr. Käfer von seiner lo-fi-geprägten Vergangenheit und erschafft ein Werk, das über Genres und Kontinente hinausgeht.
Wo frühere Veröffentlichungen wie „Orientation“ (2020) und die „Now/Again“-Serie (2021/2023) durch intime, jazzgetränkte Instrumentals bestachen, öffnet sich „A Past Sense" neuen Horizonten. Auf 14 Tracks verschmelzen Hip-Hop-Fundamentals mit Soul-Harmonien, Jazz-Improvisationen und nordafrikanischen Rhythmus-Patterns.
Die Kollaborationen mit Novine (Deutschland), J-Tek und Kenji (beide USA) sowie Cloudhead (Österreich) sind dabei keine Gastauftritte, sondern organische Begegnungen, die Mr. Käfers Musik in unerwartete Richtungen lenken. Er bricht bewusst aus der Blase algorithmusgetriebener Lo-Fi-Playlists aus und setzt auf echte musikalische wie menschliche Verbindungen.
Thematisch kreist „A Past Sense" um die Macht der Erinnerung und die Frage, wie Vergangenheit unsere Gegenwart formt. Diese konzeptionelle Tiefe spiegelt sich auch in der visuellen Umsetzung wider: Fotograf und Art Director Robert Winter entwickelte eine Bildsprache, die Nostalgie und Zukunftsvision in perfekter Balance hält.
Mit „A Past Sense" positioniert sich Mr. Käfer neu im internationalen Beat-Kosmos. Das Album erscheint am 11. November über Melting Pot Music – digital und auf Vinyl.

Aitcher Clark steps out from his work as one half of LOFN (Veyl, 2021) with a first solo long-player that draws a sharp line between the club and the cinema.
The 6-track LP moves with intent across ambient space, industrial techno frameworks, and restrained neoclassical harmony. It favors patience over peaks, detail over spectacle, and a narrative arc that rewards a
start-to-finish listen.
The campaign begins September 19th with the lead single “Improperly Planned Experience”, an industrialleaning cut driven by a relentless drum pattern and an eerie, immersive atmosphere. Stark and physical, it sets the tone for the album with its focus on tension, texture, and shadow rather than melody. On the same day, Clark will debut a new live and visual show at Lunchmeat Festival in Prague in collaboration with visual artist OXOO, translating the record into an immersive set where sound design and reactive visuals lock to the micro-gestures that run through the album. The performance is built around custom stems, live resampling, and dynamic lighting cues that mirror the music’s push and pull.
Across the LP, Clark threads field-recorded texture with precision drum programming and layered harmonies, avoiding predictable drops in favor of pressure that accumulates over time. The palette is cool and tactile: detuned pads, clipped low-end, and percussive details at the edge of audibility. Moments of clarity, strings, voice-like synths, negative space, arrive as structural markers rather than ornaments.
For Veyl, the album sits comfortably within a catalog that values forward motion and atmosphere, while opening a more composition-driven lane. For listeners who followed LOFN’s 2021 release, this solo debut widens the frame: less collaborative call-and-response, more solitary architecture, with the same focus on tension and timbre. The live show with OXOO extends that idea beyond the record, using visual rhythm and color to render the music’s internal logic in real time.

Daniele Baldelli
Considered one of the first DJs in Italy, Daniele Baldelli began his career in 1969 mixing vinyl at the Tana Club in Cattolica (his hometown),
predating the birth of the modern DJ by several years. In the following years, he solidified his talent and technique at histor such as the Tabù Club, Baia degli Angeli, and Cosmic. From 1979 to 1984, Baldelli created his unique and eclectic style, blendi ic clubs ng seemingly distant sounds and musical styles, complementing them with tempo adjustments (bpm) and deliberately extreme equalization,
creating a truly distinctive sound, known as "Afro Disco." Soundscapes and tribal percussion blend with early electronic music experiments, and Baldelli's sets become truly mystical experiences, where, for the first time, the temples are replaced by the dance floor.
The documentary film "A Cosmic Life" has just been released, starring Daniele Baldelli alongside other illustrious guests from the nightclub scene, recounting the history and formation of this movement from the 1970s to the present.
Gaudi
A producer/musician among the most highly regarded on the international dub/electronic scene, over the past 30 years Gaudi, from his
London studio, has contributed significantly to expanding the boundaries of musical genres with high-profile releases and innovative
music production techniques. Recently nominated for a Grammy Award with 'Mass Manipulation', the album he produced for the reggae
band Steel Pulse, and also nominated for a World Music Award with his album 'Dub Qawwali' with Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali
Khan, Gaudi has collected a series of number 1s on the international charts: Billboard - with the album 'Heavy Rain' by Lee "Scratch"
Perry, 'Vessel of Love' by singer Hollie Cook and with 'Mass Manipulation' by Steel Pulse -, UK Chart n.1 with the album 'Prism' by the
band The Orb (with whom he has collaborated as a producer and keyboardist since 2008), with 'Blue Monday' - by Gaudi himself with
the band Dub Pistols -, UK Dance Chart n.1 with 'Jus Come rmx' produced with DJ Angelino for Cool Jack. He also reached no. 41 the UK charts with the album ‘Midnight Rocker’ by reggae singer Horace Andy (known to the general public for his hits with Massive in
Attack), no. 13 with the album ‘Dubwise 2’ by the band Dreadzone and no. 5 in the Italian charts with the song ‘Lasciala Andare’, written
by him for Irene Grandi. With 19 solo albums and 350 remixes and productions under his belt, Gaudi, with his artistic versatility, has
worked with Groove Armada, UB40, Simple Minds, Brian Ferry, Devo, Big Audio Dynamite, Damian Marley, Seun Kuti, Mad Professor,
Trentemøller, Grandmaster Flash ft KRS-One, Lamb, Don Letts, The Beat, Deep Forest, African Head Charge (in which Gaudi is a keyboardist and dubmaster), Elisa, Scientist, Dub FX, Roedelius, Caparezza, Caravan Palace, EMF, Sizzla, Jovanotti, Sly & Robbie, Piero Pelù, Youth of Killing Joke, and Maxi Priest, to name just a few. Capleton,
Daniele Baldelli & Gaudi
DJ Daniele Baldelli and producer Gaudi first met three years ago at the Jazz Cafe in London. Mutual respect and an innate need to
create new stylistic fusions were the catalysts for Baldelli and Gaudi, leading to a series of subsequent meetings that inevitably culminated in the need to create music together. The project began at Gaudi's Metatron Studio in London using analog equipment and later
moved to Baldelli's studio in Cattolica, where the two organically defined their sound, also inspired by Baldelli's precious record collection. The duo consolidated a powerful compositional symbiosis, and the project, born from a simple initial groove, later transformed
into an entire EP consisting of four original tracks and a highly innovative sound, featuring fusions of psychedelic-funk, tribal-dub,
electronic-disco, and, of course, "Afro-Cosmic"! Daniele Baldelli and Gaudi began their sonic collaboration without setting any stylistic
direction and with the intention of not creating pre-established goals to achieve; it is a project of pure artistic freedom guided by their
compositional instinct and their experience. Constantly active with their evenings and live concerts, Baldelli and Gaudi have performed
individually in many of the best international clubs and festivals.

There are artists we occasionally happen across, even 14 years into our FatKidOnFire journey, where we know we need to work with them. There is material from said artists which sets our world on fire, and then there’s the four tunes that make up our first physical record in over two years. This one’s a long time coming, and also marks one of the first instances in FKOF Records where we welcome an artist to the family with a straight-to-record release. When you hear it, you’ll understand why. This is the long overdue FKOFv009…

Over the last decade and a half, the 140 landscape has been through its peaks and troughs. Tastes and styles change, but the one constant is when we find the right beats, bass and space we know we’re onto a winner. The international TRAKA collective caught our eyes and ears early on in their project – for all the right reasons. We’re delighted to welcome them to FKOF Records with a long-overdue record, as well as welcoming long time FKOF fam Oddkut back into the fold.



“The ninth outing on FKOF Records’ physical imprint opens with the anthemic voice of Rider Shafique joining forces with TRAKA for ‘Soo’. Hard-hitting truths, juddering percussion and a rolling low end so solid you can almost chew on it. Keep fighting and rise.

“Next up, we ratchet things up a notch with ‘Shock Em Up’. It’s an absolute unit of a tune, and when we get asked for what we mean by beats, bass and space this is our 2024 example. Effective heavyweight sonic warfare.

“FKOF009’s B-side opens with ‘Silus' – continuing along the foundations TRAKA laid on the A-side. Suffocating power, engaging atmospherics and a vibe that works at peak time on the dancefloor as well as it does opening or closing out the graveyard slot.

“We close out the record welcoming Oddkut back for his latest outing on FKOF Records with the TRAKA collab ‘Shake Junt’. It twists and turns through its first drop, before taking a completely new direction in the break. It’s an absolute groove and one that’s been a firm favourite for as long as it’s been in the bag.”

- Limited edition solid 2x12” vinyl LP.
- Housed in PMS printed inner sleeve, featuring custom fonts by No Format and spot gloss abstraction of the original album artwork.
- Accompanied with a double sided 2-panel insert and double sided 4 panel poster.
- All sleeved in a custom PMS reverse board outer sleeve with die cut square centre panel and belly band.


Grinning Cat confounded devotees of Sakura with a far more complex set of tracks. A landscape of ambiguous emotional resonance within an album of measured extremes. Sentimental without being schmaltzy, joyful without being saccharine, Grinning Cat sees Yokota at his most playful and experimental, channelling moments of transitory wonder and jubilation, and opening up a sonic environment in which we can romp and play.

A key label on the Berlin scene since the 1990s, Muller Records—famed for a deep and chunky club sound from artists like Dave DK, Claude Young and The Hacker—is back with a new EP from Beroshima feat Rummy Sharma with remixes from Namito and Pascal Hetzel. Beroshima, of course, is the production work of label Frank Muller sometimes accompanied by ethereal electronic music specialist Ulrich Schnauss. After more than twenty years together they have amassed a fine body of work that includes five albums and more than a hundred Eps!

Always mixing up acid, techno and tribal into something fresh, the Beroshima sound has its own unique signature.... For this latest single Muller steps up solo to produce another gem. The stellar Delhibelly is a slick and muscular cut that bubbles away on a bed of warming bass.... Smeared pads add soul and snares flap about like tin foil in a breeze. It's a futuristic cut that will always pack a punch in any context. The Techno Mix is just as soulful but is quicker and more expansive so as to carry dancers away on an uplifting groove. Namito is a Green Horn Records producer from Iran but based in Berlin. He is another veteran who is as relevant as ever and his mix slows things down to a deep, inviting roller with jazzy perc, absorbing synths and kinetic kicks driving things along in style. Finally Pascal Hetzel, fresh from his super CYRK release with Sierra Sam, completes this sterling great package.

His classy remix is another rounded affair full of warm synths and bass that is sure to keep energy and emotional levels high in any set. Once again here Muller Records have concocted a club ready record that both DJs and dancers will love.

Late great guitar legend recorded live in 1988 in New York City at the Lone Star Roadhouse. Features special guest appearances from Warren Haynes, Jack Bruce, Mick Taylor and Rick Derringer on Allman Brothers classics and Dickey Betts solo material. The set was broadcast on classic rock NYC radio station WNEW-FM. Double LP set available on limited-edition marijuana green splatter vinyl.

Heavyweight groove from ERP — deep electro pressure with Microcentric on the flip, plus a killer Convextion remix. Pure machine soul for late-night heads.

DJ Feedbacks :


Pariah : amazing
Erol Alkan (Phantasy Sound) : Downloading Thanks!
Ben Sims : Now downloading... will check asap!
Luke Slater : Thanks!
Dave Clarke (white noise radio) : Seismic and well crafted, full support
Peverelist (Livity Sound) : Awesome, thanks!
Tensal (Tensal, Falling Ethicss) : great, Gerard always on point, thx
Call Super (Houndstooth) : thxxxx
Confidential Recipe (Rekids Special Projects) : great ep!
DJ Bone (FURTHER) : The Convextion remix is fire.
Monty Luke (Rekids / Black Catalogue) : solid ep
GiGi FM : <3
Jon Hester (Rekids, EDEC, Les Enfants Terribles, L.A.G.) : Fantastic EP across the board, amazing stuff!!
Jako Jako (BPitch Control, Tresor) : Schön!
Dan Beaumont (Chapter 10 / NTS) : Brilliant! love the Convextion mix
Satoshi Tomiie (Abstract Architecture) : Next level production and quality. Hats off
MoMa Ready (RAVE UNIT, HAUS of ALTR, Method 808) : great remix
Josh Wink (Ovum) : Usually good and sensual Electro from E.R.P.
Carista : love the remix of convextion
DVS1 : Thanks!
Inland : Ace! the remix is so lush! Thanks
Laurent Garnier : Ohhh whaouuuu - THIS IS SUPERB Full support
Radio Slave (Rekids) : I'm sold... This is great and I really love all the tracks.
Marcel Dettmann : thx
2562 / A Made Up Sound (Delsin, Clone) : The Convextion version is fire! Thanks :)
Bake (All Caps/Rinse FM) : love! <3
Interstellar Funk (Rush Hour) : Sounds great! Thank you
Efdemin (Dial) : Insanely good ep from the master!
Darko Esser / Tripeo (Balans / Clone) : Always good in my book, fantastic record!
Bailey Ibbs (Metafloor Records / Habits / Dansu Discs) : Make Electro Great Again!!
Nathan Jonson (Hrdvision) : rad!!!!
Uncertain (RSPX, WRKTRX, Suara) : convextion remix for me
Dj Deep (Deeply Rooted) : super nice release!
ROD / Benny Rodrigues : !!!!!
Surgeon (Dynamic Tension Records) : Great work. Love all tracks. Will play Convexion remix in my DJ sets for sure.
Steffi (Dolly) : simply grea!!!!!!
Kr!z (Token Records) : absolutely fantastic, as always
Phase Fatale (Ostgut Ton, BITE, Hospital Productions, Jealous God) : awesome!
Theo Nasa (Rekids) : WICKED!!!
Kosh (Syncrophone) : Lovely release
Subradeon (Subradeon Records) : interesting stuff! thanks for sending. Convextion rmx is my fav!
Gramrcy (Peach Discs/FTD) : Convextion remix is sick
Stephanie Sykes (Vent) : All tracks are sounding Super nice!!! TY!!! especially feeling Four Alone, so beautifully nostalgic. Cant wait to play!
Tal Fussman (Survival Tactics / Innervisions / Cod3QR / Drumpoet / Rekids) : oh yes
Richie Hawtin (M_Nus) : downloaded for r hawtin
Alan Oldham (DJ T-1000) : Super high quality electro, but the Convextion remix is the one I'm more likely to play out. Will support!
Ben UFO (Hessle Audio / Rinse FM) : convextion remix!
Truncate : Dope cuts thanks
Jonas Kopp : Excellent stuff, but this more of the pre-existent material.
The Advent : amazing stuff, digging all the tracks.. 2 - E.R.P - Microsentric my Fav..
Ste Roberts : Absolutely out of order! Anything Gerard touches turns to gold. 10/10
Joris Voorn (Spectrum) : Downloaded, thanx.
Roberto / R.M.K / Fossil Archive (Fossil Archive) : Love this!
Raffaele Attanasio (Axis) : nicee1!!!
DJ Assassin (Recode Records / Cross Section / Connaisseur) : wicked

Hüsker Dü. Live. 1985. Das transzendente Punk-Trio aus Minneapolis in seinem explosivsten Jahr, live aufgenommen auf der Bühne im First Avenue, in der vielleicht am besten klingenden Aufnahme der gefeierten SST-Ära der Band. Diese 4xLP/2xCD-Edition enthält Beau Sorensons Restaurierung der 21 Songs des gesamten Sets vom 30. Januar 1985, dazu 20 zusätzliche Live-Tracks aus dem weiteren Tourneeverlauf des Jahres und ein Deluxe-Booklet mit detaillierten Informationen zu den zwölf geschichtsträchtigen Monaten von Hüsker Dü. Wie klingt eine Legende, in dem Moment, wenn sie geschrieben wird? Betrachtet man das Jahr 1985 durch die dynamische Linse der Independent/DIY-Musik, so gab es Mitte des Jahrzehnts für Hüsker Dü einen kraftvollen und unbestreitbaren Sprint von der rauen Punk-Institution bei SST zur künstlerischen Empathie bei Warner Bros. Die New York Times bezeichnete die Band als "die beste, die aus der Hardcore-Szene hervorgegangen ist". Im Einklang mit diesem Lob zeigte Hüsker Dü ein kreatives Tempo, das in keiner anderen Musikära zuvor oder seitdem jemals erreicht wurde. Nachdem sie im Juli des Vorjahres mit dem Doppelalbum "Zen Arcade" die aufkeimende Alternative-Rock-Bewegung sprengte, veröffentlichte die Band nur sechs Monate später, am 14. Januar 1985, das epochale "New Day Rising" und hörte nie auf, dem Sonnenaufgang über dem Hidden Beach nachzujagen, der das Cover des Albums zierte. Am 30. Januar 1985 erreichte Minneapolis am Abend zum Zeitpunkt des Konzerts -11 °C, was einem gnadenlosen Temperatursturz von 19 Grad gegenüber dem Tageshöchstwert von 8 °C bedeutete. Die 1500 Besucher im First Avenue brauchten jedoch kein T-Shirt, geschweige denn eine Daunenjacke: Von den ersten blendenden Momenten von "New Day Rising" an war klar, dass Bob Mould, Grant Hart und Greg Norton fest entschlossen waren, jedes Molekül im Raum in Brand zu setzen. Ihre Setlist bot eine nächtliche Kaskade von Feuerbällen aus den Alben "Everything Falls Apart", "Metal Circus", "Zen Arcade" und "New Day Rising" sowie fünf neue Songs, die später auf "Flip Your Wig" wieder auftauchen sollten. Außerdem würdigten sie ihre rockigen Vorfahren: mit einer rasanten Version von "Eight Miles High" von The Byrds, einer turbulenten Interpretation von "Helter Skelter" von den Beatles mit Dave Pirner von Soul Asylum, einem Pop-Punk-Remake von "Ticket To Ride" ebenfalls von den Beatles und ihrem charakteristischen Cover von Sonny Curtis' Mary-Tyler-Moore-Titelsong "Love Is All Around" zum Abschluss. Die First-Avenue-Bänder von 1985 zeigen Hüsker Dü in Höchstform mit bereits beliebten Songs, ein paar Jahre bevor sie ihren Status als Blaupause für den kommenden Alternative-Rock-Boom endgültig gefestigt hatten. Dieses Box-Set feiert diese Aufnahmen, die vielleicht die besten Hüsker-Dü-Aufnahmen sind, die während der legendenhaften SST-Jahre der Band produziert wurden. "Wenn ich an diese Zeit zurückdenke", kommentiert Greg Norton, "waren das drei Jungs, die das taten, was sie liebten, Spaß hatten und im Grunde anderen Menschen zeigten, dass man sich selbst treu bleiben kann, seiner Musik treu bleiben kann und sich nicht der Mode oder den Erwartungen beugen muss, um etwas wirklich Großartiges zu schaffen."

Debut solo album from guitar player of Calicos. The result is a record that balances melancholy and raw intensity, where vulnerability is never far from power.Aäron Koch's voice cuts straight through, while the band builds a sound that feels both timeless and urgent, echoing The Veils, My Morning Jacket and Strand of Oaks.



For years, Aäron Koch was the guitarist in other people's bands. Writing intricate riffs and odd time signatures came naturally, but the thought of writing a simple song, a verse, a chorus, a melody that could stand on its own, felt out of reach. He tried and failed, discarded demos, and pushed himself through the humbling exercise of writing "bad songs" just to learn the craft.

'For Once', his debut album (out via Unday Records), is the unexpected outcome of that long struggle. What began as an exercise became a set of songs that refused to stay in the drawer. Months after recording rough sketches, Koch listened back and realized they weren't throwaways after all. With a small heart, he shared them with friends, musicians from bands like Calicos, Uma Chine and Tin Fingers, who immediately heard their potential and joined the project.



The result is a record that balances melancholy and raw intensity, where vulnerability is never far from power. Koch's voice cuts straight through, while the band builds a sound that feels both timeless and urgent, echoing The Veils, My Morning Jacket and Strand of Oaks.

"This music is about weaknesses and vulnerability," Koch says. "Autobiographical really, something I only realized once the album took shape."



That honesty struck a chord. In 2024, after only a handful of shows, Aäron Koch reached the finals of Humo's Rock Rally and was invited to open for Belle & Sebastian at a sold-out Ancienne Belgique. Now 'For Once' shows why: it's the sound of someone learning to write songs the hard way, and discovering in the process that he has something entirely his own to say.